The last few weeks have seen a multitude of MLS history in the making. The meeting of Montreal Impact and Toronto FC in the Easter Conference Final meant that for the first time ever, there would be a Canadian team in the MLS Cup Final! The first leg of this historic event saw Montreal beat Toronto FC 3-2 at home, which meant that Toronto needed a win in the second leg, at home. The Reds knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. If Montral scored just one away goal, it would mean that TFC needed to work a little harder to get 2, and the more goals the Impact scored, the harder TFC needed to work in order to win the conference.

The second leg was a bit of a roller coaster and things were looking a little grim as Montreal opened the score line in the 24th minute. Toronto needed 2 goals to win this series and they began to press…hard! The light for TFC grew brighter as Armando Cooper leveled it off in the 37th minute, and Altidore bagged his first for the night in the 45th (making him the only MLS player to score a goal in every playoff match thus far). If the score line remained this way, TFC would have won and gone through to the MLS Cup Final however, just 8 minutes into the second half, Ignacio Piatti leveled the score at 2 in the 53rd minute. But wait…this goal should not have counted and makes this a major turning point in the match, and in my opinion makes for a Critical Match Incident and should be PRO’s next Play of the Week. Read the rest of this entry »

LAW 11 – OFFSIDE, probably the most difficult and controversial law of all 17 IFAB Laws of the Game. It’s generally accepted that most people don’t know the law fully including all of its interpretations, nor would most expect everyone to know the offside law inside-out. However, the few people on this planet one would expect to know this law, and not make such a massive error are the top, elite FIFA list Assistant Referees. Unfortunately, the Rio 2016 quarter final between the United States and Sweden saw what I consider the biggest fail by a FIFA AR at a major tournament. Read the rest of this entry »

With changes in law like “Ball can be kicked in any direction at kick-off”, “Offside FK always taken where offence occurs (even in own half)”, and “Foul off the field penalized with a direct free kick on boundary line”, it’s no wonder why most referees were excited to watch the UEFA European Championships this year, and to get a first hand look at the new laws being applied. The most anticipated of these changes is the new DOGSO part of Law 12 in that the “triple punishment” has been removed and some DOGSO offences inside the penalty area are now punished with a Caution (yellow card). However, as exciting as the 2016 Euro’s were, I was personally a little disappointed in that there weren’t very much match incidents, or at least controversial incidents to really talk about. On one hand, I applaud the officials at this years tournament for the exemplary job they did at managing and controlling each match. On the other hand, by the end of the month-long event, the referee community still didn’t have much examples of the new laws in action. That is until now… Read the rest of this entry »

It would be a far stretch to argue that the LOTG are 100% complete, and without gray areas or debatable topics; just look at the changes about to come into effect and what a huge Pandora’s box of protest and dissent is going to follow. However, that’s an entirely different topic, and separate post that I will save for another day. Alas, there are certainly some areas where the LOTG could use a little clarification and possible the odd added word or two just to make things solid and clear for all parties concerned.

One such instance is regarding a deliberate pass from a player to his own goal keeper. In this clip, white is the defender and plays the ball to his own goal keeper.

My fellow referees…first, allow me to apologize for being away for so long; more precisely, for not posting any topics for a few months. Things have been quite chaotic for me with football, futsal and being on the board of the director for my local referees’ association.

In case you don’t know, the UEFA Futsal Euro is currently underway (2nd leg of quarter final matches happening today) and there was one particular incident in the group stage match between Portugal and Serbia this past weekend that was particularly interesting to me and burning a hole in my head. I knew that I had to figure it out for myself and write a post about it as I’m sure it will stir up some conversations within the referee community worldwide.

The incident took place in the last minute of the game and although this is an example for a futsal match, the same rules apply for a football match, as well.

Red #10 has possession of the ball and is attacking the White goal. A White defender is 2 – 3 yards away, applying pressure and waiting for Red #10 to make a move. Another Red attacker runs from behind the White defender and stands just to the right side of the defender in a blocking position, as Red #10 moves the ball to the left. The White defender turns to follow and bumps into the Red defender, and Red #10 is able to get a shot on net. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, IFAB has sent out a new circular heavily pertaining to Law 11 and the interpretation of the offside law. In particular, it pays close attention to “Interfering with and opponent” and the act of a “”Save”. Along with the circular, The FA have also distributed a clarification memo, and illustrative examples to help referees at all levels understand what is actually being discussed. I’m not going to go into them in great detail – if you would like to see the material for yourself, you are more than welcome to download them below: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always a downer when you’re all geared up and ready for a match, only to get an email notification that your game tonight has been cancelled, or rescheduled. That’s what happened to me last night however, I was able to salvage what was left of my evening by catching the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship semi final between Toronto FC and Montreal Impact. Thankfully the game was very exciting and fairly high scoring as Toronto was losing on aggregate and needed a fairly high number of goals if they wanted any part in the final. The blind mice for the night did a tremendous job of controlling the match without any major problems however, I did feel that there was an opportunity for a Montreal send off.

Being the football referee enthusiast that I am, and a self proclaimed nerd when it comes to things of this nature, I am often left wondering about situations and their probability of actually coming to pass, not just in my own appointments, but in games my friends watch over or matches I see on TV. I also like to ponder on the reasons why certain things are the way they are, and how/when they came to be. Often these two curiosities work hand in hand as finding the answer to one, inevitably answers the other. Over the weekend, a friend asked a hypothetical scenario which did exactly that; the answer sparked my wonder and I went searching for answers.(I should preface the question by saying that DMC knows the answer but was just thinking about the mechanics and complexity of the situation.)

The scenario as asked by DMC goes like this:

“Player commits cautionable offence (doesn’t matter what it is really – but let’s say a reckless tackle). You take out your pad/card to write it down before showing the yellow. Player smacks said pad/card out of your hand – You show a red card for that.Question: Do you still record the yellow you were going to give? If so, when do you consider the caution “recorded”? When the act is committed that warrants the caution, when you decide in your head you’re giving a caution, or when you show/write the caution (whichever comes first)?”Read the rest of this entry »